What the Heck-ler! Spectator gives tough time to Rohit

With a diaspora that's spread out across the world like ants in an ant farm, India is never short of NRI fans whenever they tour abroad, irrespective of the nature of the game or the venue. They will come to cheer our boys, doesn't matter if it's a series-deciding Test, an ODI final or a two-day tour opener. Not that it's always a good thing. Just ask Rohit Sharma, or his Mumbai teammate Ajinkya Rahane.

The elegant Mumbai batsman was fielding on the boundary ropes, where he was subjected to some unwanted attention from an NRI couple from Sydney who were seated in the front row near the Jack Fingleton Stand.

The couple was watching the action with their five-year-old son when Rohit, who had earlier rolled his arm over, albeit not with too much success conceding 56 runs off his eight overs, moved to deep extra cover. The portly husband started to chat up the middle-order bat. He said in mumbled Hindi which roughly translated to "Rohit could you bowl to my son in the nets? He's a big fan of yours. He doesn't want to face Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav. He wants you to bowl to him." Rohit, disinterestedly, reiterated, "Okay." The husband, not getting the drift of the tone and the grudging undercurrent of the one-word reply, took it for a yes, and asked, "Wow, that would be great. What time would be good?"

As the question ended, so did the over and Rohit without hesitation changed his fielding position.

Having failed in his earlier attempts, the unrelenting heckler turned his attention to the next fielder to move close - Ajinkya Rahane. Just one tiny problem, he hadn't the slightest clue who Rahane was.

After repeatedly yelling out "Saha, Saha," which didn't evince the slightest reaction from Rahane, the heckler for a change read between the lines.

When Rahane finally turned towards the stands, the heckler waved frantically, and blurted out, "Which Sharma are you? The tall one or the tubby one?"

Not surprisingly, Rahane met his question with silence. Obviously, he's heard the idiom which could prove helpful for our heckler friend, better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and actually prove it!